Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports,1 appreciates the opportunity to provide comments to the Committee as it considers introducing legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). Given the challenges that today’s students face in accessing quality, affordable higher education – and repaying the loans they have to borrow to pay for school – we urge the Committee to focus on three goals:
- Address the ongoing debt crisis by reducing current borrowers’ burdens in repayment.
- Increase access and affordability for current and future students.
- Ensure program integrity by removing bad actors from the system.